Archive for the ‘Virtual Assistant – TasksEveryday.com’ category

Outsource Bookkeeping

August 30th, 2011

Maintaining documents of financial transactions, like sales, purchase, income, and payments (in short, keeping all kinds of business records up-to-date) is a task that is extremely susceptible to administrative chaos and sometimes, counterfeiting. Moreover, if done effectively, bookkeeping can help the business in successfully managing the cash-flow, stay abreast of profits/losses, and build up strategy for the future based upon fiscal trends.

The body that handles such jobs is subject to high level of responsibility and trust. Furthermore, bookkeeping is quite a tedious and time-consuming job as well. It is very essential to have a full-time ‘care-taker’ for such critical issues. Finding an aptly professional and trustworthy person may not always be feasible. This is where the concept of outsource bookkeeping emerges.

Generally, one might wonder, which all the tasks are covered in outsource bookkeeping? This would be a right question, because bookkeeping is a very vast field, and outsourcing is fairly a new phenomenon. Outsource bookkeeping is subject to matters such as, ledger maintenance, balance sheet groundwork, bank reconciliation, financial statement preparation, payable and receivable accounts administration, payroll dispensation, etc.

Apart from these fundamental accounting routine, outsource bookkeeping also ventures into fields like financial analysis, everyday tasks reporting, financial year end tax projection, and contractual accounting services.

Firms or individuals, offering outsource bookkeeping services, cater to clients of different sizes as per their dispensation capacity. Some outsource bookkeeping assistants might limit their services to individual clients, to small/medium business enterprises, or even to certified public accounts; while some other outsource bookkeeping service providers may dole out their assistance exclusively to big corporations.

The most commonplace perplexity that might arise in one’s mind would be, How such a ‘corporeal’ task can be outsourced to a ‘virtual’ assistant? Outsource bookkeeping doesn’t leave this issue unresolved as well. Outsource bookkeeping is generally carried out by using internet. Potential documents (subject to outsource bookkeeping) are maintained and processed in web-based applications, like QuickBooks, Peachtree, MRI, Timberline, Sageline50, and Pro Series. This arrangement enables a virtual bookkeeper to have a remote access to these source documents. (This is why sometimes outsource bookkeeping is also called ‘remote bookkeeping’.) These software, record and stockpile all the entries in a remote location. Using the internet, these (highly pass-word protected) documents can be accessed (by the authorized entity) from any location in the world.

Hiring a full-time bookkeeping professional, although a good idea, may not be quite affordable to everybody. This assertion is chiefly pertinent for individuals and home-based/small/start-up business owners. At such times, opting for outsource bookkeeping is a good alternative, as their charges are subject to the time they spend on working upon their client’s work.

Outsource Administrative Assistant

August 30th, 2011

Having To spend most of your time in tasks like paying bills, typing documents, making presentations, bookkeeping; when, as a business owner, you are actually required to concentrate on more critical issues (like production increase/quality and the business expansion) is very unfortunate. This can be viewed as a major encumbrance between you and your success. Nonetheless, this circumstance may be unfortunate, but finding the solution is not that difficult… which, by the way, is called ‘Outsource administrative assistant’.

Outsource administrative assistant… What is it? Who is it? Or what and how does he help? … The answer to many of such questions can be culminated in one simple sentence. Outsource administrative assistant, is a remotely situated freelance virtual assistant, who offers his managerial, secretarial, organizational, administrative, analytical, and creative skills to any kind of entity, who is too busy to handle such jobs by himself. Pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? Anyway… little more enlightenment won’t hurt.

When one starts a business or a freelance service, the one goal in his mind he does and should preserve, is ‘growth’. However, this growth (or development) won’t be speed-posted from the heaven. It won’t be bestowed upon you as a yearly ‘promotion’. As a whole and sole owner of business, one needs a lot of research, strategies, generation of professional relations, plans of business expansion, and firm decisions to move ahead. How can this all be possible, when he is stuck up with all the non-structured organizational tasks? Though, they are important, they are not directly linked with generating revenue. Moreover, the owner himself is not needed to accomplish them.

At such times, outsource administrative assistant comes to our rescue. Typically outsource administrative assistant is a self employed person who can be operative from any portion of the globe, and is equipped with all the necessary administrative knowledge and skills. He carries out his services, using his own instruments and infrastructure. An outsource administrative assistant may be home-based or office-based, but, for sure, he is a through professional when it comes to service delivery.

The assortment of jobs that an outsource administrative assistant can accomplish is very diverse. Any task that your in-house personal secretary can do, can be done by an outsource administrative assistant much more professionally and slickly. Documentation, bill payments, payroll management, organization of client/customer mails, managing financial records, banking, content development, market survey, making business presentations are some jobs that he can do while not bothering you, except when to be delivered. The list does not end here, but is further advanced with possible tasks like arranging a client meeting or an interview, or an appointment with the doctor or a lawyer, making reservations in the hotels, booking air-tickets, calling a plumber.

Now you must wonder, why outsource administrative assistant is so special, when all these functions can be done by hiring a personal secretary? … Try doing that, and then find out the cost for hiring an outsource administrative assistant. The widened eyes, after seeing the cost-difference between hiring a domestic personal assistant and hiring an outsource administrative assistant will be the answer in itself. As a freelance virtual assistant, he charges you for every assignment (in some cases, as per the time spent on working upon your assignment), which counts ‘way’ less, if compared with the expenditure upon weekly/monthly salary, allowance, benefits, PF and policy contributions, paid leaves expenses, bonuses, plus the expense of maintaining an office space, electricity and many other kinds of bills, infrastructure, communication, instruments, technology, etc. Sounds very exhausting, doesn’t it?

So, do the math and make the choice yourself.

Offshore Virtual Assistant

August 30th, 2011

The core motive of outsourcing your business processes is to reduce the operational expenditure and save money, as well as to bring professional sophistication to your business functions. Being proficient and qualified is, by default, a must for any virtual aide for offering his services… but what about his fees?

At such times, offshore virtual assistant can be your remedy. You may wonder, “Why should an offshore virtual assistant possibly be more cost effective than the domestic one?” The answer is simple.

Nations like India, have since long been renowned for their English speaking population, even though it is not their first language. Considering their population, they have more English speaking people than any other ‘predominantly English-speaking’ country has. Technical advancement is not atypical and scarce there. Moreover, they are known for their knowledge and skills when it comes to IT. They are capable of providing you as decent virtual aide as any of your fellow countrymen would. In overall view of the currency valuation and the fact that their fees are estimated in regard of ‘their’ currencies and not dollars, the cost of an offshore virtual assistant is always ‘way’ lower than the domestic ones.

Some people always bring out the issue that an offshore virtual assistant would never be familiar with your culture and language. This statement ideally does not hold a very strong base, as the world is coming closer and closer day after day. With increasingly bonding international relations, no foreign country is looked upon as ‘alien’. Moreover, gaining through knowledge of the language, culture, sentiments and traits of the client is one of the responsibilities of any offshore virtual assistant.

Just for the sake of argument, some people might say that offshore virtual assistant is not quite subject to the legislative data protection policy. There is no such danger in regards to your valuable data, as each offshore virtual assistant is bound by professional ethics and law enforcements. Outsourcing is viewed as ‘being a part’ of your business function, making every offshore virtual assistant entitled to the privacy and confidentiality policies of their client company, as intensely as any of their domestic employee would be.

People say, the interests of an offshore virtual assistant lays solely in money-making and is not vested in the good-will of your company. If, other than the owner, any domestic virtual aide can be devoted towards your company, then even an offshore virtual assistant can be as stanch and dependable, because after all they both are your virtual aide, and not in house staff. Business ethics, loyalty, and dedication are not subject to national boundaries.

For any business, big or small, it is very essential to save as much money as possible, which can be re-directed towards more production, improvement in the quality, and business expansion. As business grows, so grows the scope of more employments. Investing in offshore virtual assistant, in long run, would be tremendously profitable in the future for the company as well as for your compatriots.

Internet Research Virtual Assistant

August 30th, 2011

Internet research virtual assistant has become a phenomenon since the people who need virtual assistance realized the necessity for dividing their business functions into strategic and non-strategic tasks, and decided to hand-over the later part to someone else, keeping themselves free to handle the magic part of the trade, decision making. Internet research on virtual assistant is done keeping in mind the fact, that though categorized as ‘non-structured’, these administrative tasks are ought to be performed by someone professional.

Internet researched virtual assistant is a body of knowledge and expertise, who is dedicated to reduce the burden of extra-work from the business owners, and carry out the same with unmatched poise and accuracy.

Finding the internet research virtual assistant is, in a way very simple yet convoluted mission. You can come across thousands of people who serve as virtual assistants, but finding ‘the’ virtual assistant, apt for your needs and budget can be little tricky. Also, there is an array of internet research virtual assistant who need to advertise their service on a forum, from where they can get some clients.

For such diverse needs, Elance and Craigslist are two examples of websites, where these two inter-dependent entities can encounter. Business owners should keep in mind the particular area of their business function that needs to be taken care of, and should limit their internet research for virtual assistant within those boundaries.

The most popular internet research virtual assistant is Indian. India, being an outsource hub, houses the ‘hodgepodge’ of wide-ranging internet research virtual assistant. Due to the advancement in technology and already a rich educational background, Indian internet research virtual assistant is considered to be the ‘best-shot’ for outsourcing any kind of tasks. Some established and most visited Indian internet research virtual assistant companies, like TasksEveryday, offer a wide range of services that are handled by the professional and skilled aides.

The assignments, for which the internet is researched for virtual assistants, mainly deal with administrative, analytical, and creative functions. Tasks like bookkeeping, data management, HR services, market review, making of business proposition; and also other functions like creative writing, copy writing, ghost writing, graphic designing, brand management are efficiently looked after by internet research virtual assistant.

The payment structure of such internet research virtual assistant, who operates mainly through internet, telephone, fax, and post, depends on each individual. Some virtual assistants might charge based upon the each project, and some might charge on the hourly basis.

Whatever the case may be, one fact is underlined… the internet research virtual assistant can (and will) make a difference in the way you operate your business.

Indian Virtual Assistant

August 30th, 2011

It’s true that fortification and expansion are two vital aspects of any business. However, even this is true that limited resources leave us with limited expenditure; even if it is meant for the growth of your small business. But does that mean that the ‘buttressing’ of your company should be deprived of any further enrichment? Or, should it simply be compromised?

No, definitely not! But what possibly could be the solution?

Ever thought of Indian virtual assistant? That could be your answer.

Outsourcing to India, is quite a heated topic now days. Nonetheless, if maintained a farsighted ‘business-centric’ approach; one will realize it’s a wise decision to make.

First of all come to the decision that you need the virtual assistant, which must be quite obvious if you are spending lot of your valuable time in doing stuff like routine administration, making presentations, paying bills; or wasting a ‘fortune’ in things like paying salaries and ‘un-deserved’ allowances to in-house employees, getting the logos and graphics designed, or simply for full-time bookkeeping services.

The basic motive of outsourcing is to avail the effective service in a cost-effective way. India is known for its rich educational environment and professional services. Indian virtual assistant, being a part of this terrain, provides you a throughout dexterous service that can not be matched. India is a country that houses the maximum number of English speaking population, mind it, even more than European and American countries. Language barrier can never be the issue while dealing with any Indian virtual assistant.

Indian virtual assistant is recorded to have charged as low as $3 per hour for his service. For more critical jobs, or jobs that demand lot of creativity, if you are planning to approach a big established Indian virtual assistant service provider, the charges can go as high as $7 to $10 per hour. This, undoubtedly, is a ‘cost-effective’ way of getting your things done.

You might wonder, what kind of jobs a remotely based Indian virtual assistant can possibly do? The answer would be ‘every kind of’. If you have administrative work like managing client mails, incoming posts, paying bills, payroll management, or HR tasks, may be wearisome work like managing financial data and documents, managing bank reconciliation… absolutely everything. Indian virtual assistant industry is excelled in further functions like doing marketing research, conducting survey, and not only this, but also creative solutions like content development, graphic creation, web-page designing, logo creation… you name it and you have it. Literally, the Indian virtual assistant can make a table-reservation at a hotel, book an air-ticket, make an appointment with your dentist, and even call a plumber… and this all being situated far far away.

Opting for the Indian virtual assistant is a reliable way to get your work done in a professional way, and still saving money that can be directed towards the business development. By god’s grace, when your business is well-flourished, you can generate number of employment for your compatriots. However, the very critical ‘growing’ period of your business should not be compromised; either by wasting time on mediocre service, or by wasting money on something that is available at much cheaper price.

Some Indian virtual assistant service providers, like TasksEveryday, are well established into this domain and are capable of churning out many types of services at a very reasonable cost.

So, to experience this wonderful phenomenon, do make a point to search for your very own Indian virtual assistant.

Hire Virtual Assistant

August 30th, 2011

Running a business can be a serious mission, and it can also be a fun game. It’s a subjective matter. Depends on how you perceive it. No matter how you see it, it definitely is not something that you can think of as a piece of cake. A hardcore business is all about smelling the ever-changing market-scent like a bloodhound, and being territorial like a Bengal tiger. No doubt, a real businessman is always making policies and planning for the business expansion. However, these processes need a lot of brain-storming and thorough preparation.

How this will be possible, if the owner is stuck with stuff like, data-entry and data-maintenance, bank reconciliations, bill payments, and replying e-mails of clients? This is where you feel the need for an assistant. However, one assistant is practically inept for doing ‘everything’. He possibly can not posses all the knowledge, and hiring number of assistants would only put a hole to your business-budget.

The wisest thing to do here is to hire virtual assistant. You may wonder who is he, and what good will happen if you hire virtual assistant. Well, first of all, virtual assistant is a freelancing individual, who holds knowledge and skill in particular business processes, and offer to do the same. If you hire virtual assistant, you may outsource tasks that range from making telesales to doing extensive research on changing market scenario. You may hire virtual assistant to manage your diary, web-portals, blogs, and also to crate graphics and logos, writing content, transcription, and anything that you can think of.

Hiring virtual assistant has one more advantage. When you hire virtual assistant, you hire someone who is remotely based in his own office/home, and works using his own infrastructure and technology. The client is not liable for any payments towards anything else, but his virtual assistant’s particular number of hours, for which he worked on his assignments.

The guidelines based on which one should hire virtual assistant are nothing but ‘requirement’ and ‘budget’. Once the tasks to be outsourced have been established, the next step is to think whether they (tasks) have the manipulating power with your business development, or they are just routine administrative tasks. If the tasks are comparatively minor, you can just type ‘hire virtual assistant’ in any search engine and view the assortment of results. You may hire virtual assistant who is a freelance administrative service provider. As an individual, he may cover only few functions, based upon his knowledge and capacity, but the work will be done with thorough professionalism. Nonetheless, if the tasks that you want to outsource are kind of on ‘big scale’ and require extra expertise, then you might want to hire virtual assistant who has enough experience, infrastructure, and may be multiple work-force to carry out these tasks. Such established VA service providers, like TasksEveryday, are considered veteran virtual assistants in variety of business functions. The charges for these VAs differ depending on these aspects, such as experience and how reputable they are.

So, when you decide to hire virtual assistant, make sure that you have made a right choice, and be relaxed then after.

Hire Personal Assistant

August 30th, 2011

You are a business owner (small or big, doesn’t matter), and plan to expand it to great horizons. You have all the required passion and valor to be a successful businessman. Nonetheless, when you actually step into it, you realize that doing business has many veneers, and you are not capable of carrying them out single handedly. So, what you should do?

Simple! You just need to hire someone who will bear some of your burden and perform them as efficiently as you, as an owner, would have. In other words, you just need to hire personal assistant.

Hiring the personal assistant is advantageous in many ways. It has functional as well as monitory benefits. As an entrepreneur, you have lot of plans but fewer resources. You neither want to spend your time in doing organizational work (like paying bills and making appointments) nor can you afford to spend your capital on a huge staff for this purpose. Work is too much and capital investment is limited.

This is where you come to the decision to hire personal assistant. However, hiring a personal assistant on a full-time basis could prove to be a costly affair with regular money-drain, in the form of salaries, office maintenance, taxes, infrastructure, etc. For that reason, as a replacement for the option to hire personal assistant as an ‘around the clock’ employee, it is wiser to hire personal assistant who provides his service virtually.

What does it mean to hire personal assistant who works for you virtually? Simply, such virtual assistant is a freelancing entity who is well equipped with knowledge and skill about the work he offers to perform, and carries out such tasks with optimum professionalism and accuracy, in return of which, he charges his fees based on ‘per hour’ basis. These fees mostly (almost never) do not cross the benchmark amount of 10$ per hour. This is the case if you hire personal assistant who is well established in the VA industry and has good experience in handling multiple types of functions. In case you hire personal assistant who is almost a ‘neophyte’ or an inexperienced small-time freelancer, his charge will float between 3$ to 5# per hour. This charge, in comparison with hiring your staff, is very low, and the results that you get in return are absolutely great.

The functions that can be accomplished by hiring personal assistant are of wide variety. Right from arranging a mechanic or a plumber to conducting a comprehensive analytical research on the changing market trends is possible, just by hiring personal assistant.

When you decide to hire personal assistant, you decide to gain more time for yourself, which you can utilize in designing ambitious plans and making critical decisions about your business, its better performance, and its expansion. Plus, it gives you that time, which you can reserve exclusively for your family life.

Outsource Tasks

August 30th, 2011

The practice of outsourcing administrative functions is not new. What’s new is that the outsourcing, like before, is no more restricted to big MNCs or local corporate organizations alone. Now days if you are a self-employed person or a service man, and you are busy enough to not to be able to pay attention to your personal and social commitments, you have an option to hire a virtual aide and outsource tasks to him.

The variety of outsource tasks is so vast that you might end up thinking whether you are left with something to do all by yourself. Before we review the outsource tasks, it would be good to know the nature of outsourcing.

Any commerce is always focused on one critical thing, the revenue. The factors that are directly responsible for generating revenue are quality and quantity of production, as well as expansion of the business. Basically, this is what any business is all about. However, for a business, in order to function, administrative tasks are very important, which are very tedious and time consuming, and are not subject to (or dependent on) critical decisions that need to be taken by the governing body. So usually such tasks are outsourced to the specialized bodies that handle them efficiently, giving more time to the owner to think about the more strategic work.

Outsource tasks for a big organization differ from outsource tasks for a small business or a self-employed professional. For MNCs, when it comes to outsourcing, the tasks are more ‘non-strategic administrative’ or clerical in nature, like documentation, market research, survey, creating sales report, coordinating/replying client mails, database entry and maintenance, desktop publishing, editing, fact checking, invoice management, press release distribution, proof-reading, telephone assistance, and many more similar outsource tasks.

If you are a small-business owner or a self-employed professional, say doctor or an architect, you may marvel about which outsource tasks should you consider while approaching your virtual aide. Outsource tasks that a personal virtual assistant might handle for you, range from sheer personal to social. As a busy professional, you may not find any time for jobs like arranging a plumber/mechanic, setting an appointment with a lawyer or a doctor, management of various bill payments, making hotel reservations, airport pick-ups, appointment setting with a client, business letter writing, proposal creation, making PPT presentation for your client, blog/website updates, coordinating client/customer mailings, etc.

A virtual aide will handle such a wide array of outsource tasks and you will be free to think about your business/job, or just to have some time for yourself and your family. This affair also comes at a very reasonable price, because you will be charged for the exact amount of time spent on working upon your outsource tasks.

Personal Outsourcing

August 30th, 2011

Ever wondered, whether you are a big-shot corporate tycoon, small-time business owner, a self-employed professional, or just a very dedicated ‘bread-winner’ of your family who works in a huge MNC… You are always so busy getting wheezed out due to your own professional commitments, that you almost forget that you have certain personal and social obligations as well. Considering the fact that you are no ‘omnipresent god’, there can be a little opportunity for you to maintain a balance in your personal and professional life, in the form of ‘Personal outsourcing’.

You must have heard about big companies outsourcing their administrative functions to other organizations, within the country or overseas. Personal outsourcing is something that offers you to handle the responsibility of your personal tasks that tend to consume most of your time. Such tasks, though less important than other more important of your tasks, play a very vital role in, not only your personal life, but professional life too. Personal outsourcing provides you a virtual personal assistant who is erudite and accomplished in handling such tasks using the latest technology. In other words, personal outsourcing lets you depend on a ‘professional’ when it comes to handling your personal work.

“What kind of personal tasks personal outsourcing might possibly take care of?” you must be wondering. The range is an absolute astonishment! Right from tiny tasks like calling a plumber or a mechanic, making medical appointments, getting a restaurant-table reservation, booking hotel accommodation, arranging a flight-ticket, picking someone up from the air-port, to more advanced category of jobs like researching the reports, conducting a survey, making presentations, or conducting a market research. Personal outsourcing gives you a widest and wildest possible array of tasks that can be taken care of, when you can just relax or get indulged in more important work and not bother about all such trivial things.

One of the most important advantages of personal outsourcing is the sophistication and discipline it brings to your work. As mentioned before, these seemingly trivial, but very critical chores are handled by professionals, who know every nooks and holes of the job, in turn increasing its quality. As you are left with more important tasks, you can concentrate solely on the productivity and business development. Personal outsourcing reduces the cost of possessing a hired employee who is entitled to weekly/monthly salary and other benefits, cost of maintaining a vast infrastructure and instruments, and many other things, because in personal outsourcing, your virtual aide uses his own means of communication and his own equipments.

For personal outsourcing there are verities of virtual assistants available, specializing in particular job functions. You just need to find one that suits you the best and rely on him for the rest of your tenure.

Personal Assistant

August 30th, 2011

Running a business is ‘some’ task. Not everyone can manage to start a new commerce or carry on the heritage rolled down to you by birth. Moreover, if you are one of those ‘ambitious’ types, ‘business expansion’ is the thought that will be the constant resident of your mind.

Now, when one has so much to worry about, it is definitely not fair if he also has to invest his brains into something, which we call as ‘errands’. This is where the concept of a Personal Assistant takes birth.

It’s a known fact that any business is not a game of one single person. It’s a labor done by consolidated efforts by many people. Personal assistant is an entity that caters to the individual chores of decision-making bodies. He, along with the knowledge of his organization and its aim, is skilled in administrative tasks, like setting appointments, making reservations, creating sales reports, interpersonal communications and relations, etc. Until now we have known a personal assistant as a formally employed single person running such non-structured tasks.

Gradually, this concept has started getting old, and the need for something new has arrived. The work that can be done by a personal assistant, are now being carried out by the vast array of virtual assistants. Virtual assistant is none other than personal assistant, but in the form of a highly qualified and skilled entrepreneur. This new age personal assistant works from his own premise (home or office), uses his own mechanism or equipments for carrying out the given tasks of his clients, and is paid by the hours he dedicates towards a particular job.

Some tasks that a personal assistant performs, like screening phone calls, tracking mails/posts/faxes, organize diaries, making appointments, conducting background research, fetching information, managing data and filing, preparing presentations, etc can be done by virtual assistants as well, only with more efficiency and in a more economical way.

Elementary objective of any personal assistant is to help his employer find a perfect solution for not only his personal tasks, but also to all kinds of business needs. The growing gamut of ‘virtually’ personal assistant ensures the same thing, with the same mutual bond, concern for the client, and the sense of responsibility. Such virtual assistants may not be in direct physical contact with the client, but the service they cater through postal systems or wired/wireless technologies, is the same effective solution that a personal assistant has been providing to his clients for so many years.

We can just say, because it’s the need of the time, but for sure it is seen that age-old tradition of office based or domestic personal assistant is rapidly being replaced by the more effective and profitable system of virtual personal assistant.